Ariel Vineyards, BonBon Zero, Saint Viviana Red & White Sampler (6 × 750 mL)

Saint Viviana starts where most alcohol-free wine does not: with wine somebody already wanted to drink. The house buys finished bottles from California and the Pacific Northwest, then dealcoholizes them gently and adds as little as possible afterward.

Choosing what to buy took a year. A panel of winemakers and a sommelier worked through dozens of wines from across the region before settling on the two that became the range.

The Cabernet Sauvignon comes from Paso Robles — full-bodied, tannic, with cocoa on the finish. The Sauvignon Blanc comes from Washington State, and is the lighter and more food-flexible of the two. Both were made as wine first, which is what keeps the structure once the alcohol has gone.

BONBON is a Korean drinks brand, born in Seoul, and the gap between where it is thought up and where it is made is the design rather than an accident of it. The idea, the direction and the look are Korean. The making goes to whoever does it best, wherever they are, which is how one brand carries wine, soju and makgeolli without any of it coming from one place.

The producers it names are the point. Quinta do Ermizio farms by hand in Portugal's Vinho Verde, Azul y Garanza works the wild country of Navarra, and Carl Jung has been making wine without alcohol in the Rheingau since 1907. BONBON brings the vision and leaves the making to people who were already good at it.

Zero is the alcohol-free line, and it follows that pattern exactly: drawn up in Seoul, produced in Germany, from wine vinified in full before the alcohol is taken back out of it. Five bottles — a still Riesling, Merlot and Rosé, and a Blanc de Blancs and Sparkling Rosé with bubbles.

The labels are commissioned the same way as the wine. Jose Miguel Mendez, Hattie Stewart and Gianluca Cannizzo each had a point of view long before BONBON called, and the bottle is treated as a canvas rather than as packaging. It is the first thing anyone notices on a shelf.

ARIEL began because a hotel chain asked. Hyatt noticed its alcohol sales falling and went to J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines, who had been making their wines since 1974, and asked whether a wine without the alcohol was possible. The answer arrived in 1985, and it went on to win a Gold Medal against wines with alcohol at the Los Angeles Commercial Wine & Spirits competition. Forty years on, that is still a rare thing.

The method is J. Lohr’s own and they hold the patent on it: reverse osmosis, which separates the alcohol out under pressure rather than with heat, so the aromatics are never cooked off. The grapes come from their sustainably farmed estate vineyards in Monterey County’s Arroyo Seco and in Paso Robles, and the wine is fermented and barrel-aged in full before any of that begins. The oak happens first, which is why the Cabernet has grip and the Chardonnay has a whisper of toast.

The name is Shakespeare’s — Ariel, the ethereal spirit of The Tempest — and in 2024 the bottles were redrawn around it, with botanical illustrations, lighter glass and a screwcap. Two wines: a Chardonnay and a Cabernet Sauvignon.